Preparation of continuous metal rod.



y s. M. CUTTER.

PREPARATION 0F CONTINUOUS METAL ROD'.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5.1917. RENEWED SEPT.l 3. I9I8.

1,285,057. Pafenfed Mmmm.;

IIIII,

` UurTEDs'rATEs PATENT OFFICE.

SOLOMON'H. CUTTER, 0F vW'Ili'.'LHERSFIIEILD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOB T0CAPEWELL HOBSENAIL COMPANY, 0F HARTFORD-CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION 0I'CON- rmc'rrctrr.y l c PREPARATION or coN'rrNUoUs mman -no1). 1,285,057.i man erwten hunt. Patented Nov. 19, 1918.

application mea nay 5, 1917, serial No. 166,528.

To all whom t may concern:

.Be it known thatI, SOLOMON M. Comu, a United States citizen, residingat Wethersfield, Connecticut, have'invented the follow-`ing-describedImprovements in the Prpa# produce an equally clean andbright surface on the metal by mechanical action only and with a minimumexpenditure for equipment and power. This principal object is attainedby continuous operation and in the same operation with the annealing ofthe stock, which is also continuously performed, and it may also becombined with the first reduction of the i sectional` area of the stock,

thereby further simplifying and reducing the cost of manufacture bysaving the expense involved in repeated'handlings of the same material.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the manner of carrying on the newprocess and certain principal or` desirable features of the apparatusemployed.

Figure 1 represents in diagram the course ofthe rod stockfrom thecondition inwhich received from the rolling mill, through the successive`operations constituting the ferred form of this invention, to its nalcondition ready for the manufacture 0f nails or wire;

Figs. 2 and 3 represent in elevation and plan respectively, therod-cleaning or scaleremoving part of the invention; and

Fig, 4 is a cross section on larger scale of the cleaning chest and thesand blast apparatus.

Fig.5 is a modification.

The coil of crude rod or wire is placed on the reel table 1' (Fig. `1*)and led therefrom through or alongsideof an electric Welder or otherjoining device 2 whereby the ends of successive coils of stock can bejoined into a continuous length for passage through the apparatus. Thiswelder does not of itself Renewed September 1918. Serial No..,258,467.

known tothe electric welding art, and -it maybe understood asrepresenting any suitable means of joining the stock. From the' Welderthe stock is led directly between the opposmg spring-pressed rollerelectrodes 3 of an electric annealing apparatus 4 where it becomesinterposedin the ycircuit of a suitable current which, traversing therod crosswise and while in motion, promptly raises it to the red heatnecessary for annealing it. Dependin upon the size and material of therod an its velocity, the electric annealer may comprise one or manypairs4 of opposing electrodes distributed along the path of the stockand supplied with current of .appropriate character for the .purposestated. Its specific mode of operation is subject to adaptation tothe-material to be annealed in various ways which will be wellunderstood. In respect to the broadest aspect -of my process the saiddevice may be considered as representing any suitable means of intenselyheating the stock while in transit. From the lannealer the heated stocktravels directly through a down-turned tube or conduit 5 `into a bathbath and designed toprotect the rod,\so

far as possible from oxidizing contact with ing on the velocity andthickness of the stock, and is kept in its molten state by -meanspf gasburners 7 distributed beneath it. The function of the molten metal is toprovide or permit 'the cooling of the stock .at the gradual ratenecessary kfor .proper an-l nealing and while out of contact with theatmosphere so as-to mlmmize the production of'scale.A For-this purposethe trough may consist of one continuous receptacle or a vseriesofreceptacles as shown in Fig. 5

each containin abath ofsuccessively lower temperature with` curved tubeconductors 5L between them forY guidingr the stock from each one tothenext. It will `be readily understood that by means of an adequate numberof these receptacles, the continuous stock traveling therethrough-willbe subjected to the air'. The molten bath is contained in a f trough 6of: greater or less length, dependthe proper temperature gradient forthe best annealing results and will be the least subject toscale-,forming condltions during the heat treatment. The .materialconstituting the bath or baths may be lead, as above stated, or thelow-fusing lead alloys which will be protected by an adequate ux toguard against their own oxidation, or for the lower temperatures certainmineral oils may be used.. In the case of a single, long trough thetemperature may be made higher at the. receiving than at the deliveryend by control of the burners.

Notwithstanding any precautions some scale will be formed, though by nomeans so much as inthe case of furnace annealing and air-cooling andsome scale and'undesirabl'e dirt is ordinarily found on the crude stockprior to annealing. For removing such scale, and in place of the commonpicklng process, the continuous annealed stock from the trough 6 is ledthrough a bench of straighteningl rolls 8, which, in the present caseare driven solely by their contact with the stock, to a bending devicewhich may be called the Scaler since its function is solely that ofremoving or loosening the dirt and scale, which is accomplished bybending and reversely bending the stock on short radii. This devicecomprises two rolls 9 and 10 appropriately journaled in a suitableframework, geared together by the gears 11 and driven by thelarge gear12 and sprocket chain 13 or in any other suitable way and at a certain`speed later referred to. The roll 9 first encountered by the'stoek, isdisposed in advance of the other roll 10 and slightly higher than thatroll so that the stock will run straight to the iirst roll and wraparound it for about half its circumference, running thence to the secondroll 10, wrapping around that roll also about one-half itscircumference. The diameter of each roll is small enough so that thebending of the stock around its half circumference, rst in one directionandy then in the other, will so distort it as to dislodge'or at leastloosen the scale and dirt; in the ease of stock for use in makinghorse-nails, the diameter is approximately four inches. It has long beencustomary to loosen the scale on metal rod by bending it back and forthand the sealer above described utilizes that well understood expedientbut carries it on to a greater extent than heretofore practised l withmmy knowledge, by bending the stock at least 180" in each direction andon a short radius as above stated. The sealer rolls are providedA withflanges 14 on one or both sides i in a chamber or chest 16. For crudestock which is not particularly dirty or heavily sealed in the firstinstance that the loosening of such scale as effected by the sealerabove described, suiciently weakens its attachment to the metal to rmitof its removal by steam jet blast a one which is of course a far moreeconomical treatment than any part of the common pickling operation. Forthis urpose the stock from the sealer rolls 9 and) 10 runs through thesand blast chamber 16, while the same is inoperative, to the outlet inthe wall at the far side of the chest at which point the a steam jetnozzles 15 direct powerful and vely high velocity jets of steamconvergently an on opposite sides of the stock and in such manner thatthe steam blows back through the outlet into the chest 16 wherein it is'condensed and removed as water or findsother escape. In the case ofsquare or rectangular stock, as in horse-nail stock, the jets deliver tothe opposite corners thereby covering all four sides but any number ofgets may be employed. A steam pressure'o 60 to 100 pounds escapingthrough jet holes about g inch diameter in this manner will etfeetuallyscour and clean the general run of iron or low carbon steel rod used inhorse-nails if it has previously been passed through a sealer of thekind herein described.

For specially dirty rod stock, however, the

sand blast apparatus is additionally brought into operation and when itis used the steam jets are continued and serve the additional purpose ofremoving the sand from the issuing rod and blowing it back into thechest. It is important that no sand be left on the rod to injure thedrawing dies in later stages of manufacture.

Thesand blast comprises a set of high velocity ejector nozzles 17disposed within the chest to attack all sides of the stock, as shown inFig. 4, and each is operated by steam or other fluid pressure mediumtaken from the same main', 18, which supplies the jet nozzles 15. Theentire set of sand blast nozzles is controlled by the shut-oit valve 19as indicated. The blast nozzles 17 are. constructed on the usual ejectorprinciple and draw their supplies of sand from the bottom of the chest,through the sand pipes 20. The sand is ordinarily mixed with the waterfrom steam condensation which is kept. at a predetermined level in thechest by an appropriate overflow connection 21 (Fig. 4). The action ofthe apparatus will be understood from the drawings without furtherdctailed description and it will be apparent that the combined action ofthe sand blast and jet nozzles 15, acting on the rod from the Scalerrolls 9 and 10 will produce a bright clean surface on the dirtieststock. equal if not superior to the best that can bc I have discoverediobtained by picklin, washing" and baking, u

and is of course. ro ced b continuous operation besides eing infinltelycheaper to carry on. It will be understood however that the use of thesand blast is auxiliary to the essential'steps which comprise the. useof the sealer andthe jets of steam, and 1s to be used only in` thecaseof extraordinary tenaciousness of the surface material to the latter. Asabove stated, the general run, of

l crude Ystock as received. from the rolling mill is of such a characteras to be thoroughly cleaned by the use of the Scaler and the jets valone. Y

In my prior Patents No. 120236 and No. 1142499, I have disclosed theutil1zat ion'of a sand blast for cleaning rod 1n substltution forpickling and in the first mentioned patent the combined use of the sandblast .with cony removed at and-by theiscaler rolls where itv falls tothe iioor or in a receptacle and is in a condition to b e salvaged andbrings agood price on the market. It is notvaluable when mixed with sandas in the'case of both of the mentioned patents. The outpt of thepresent process is greater, ,since j the velocity of the stock throughthe sealer and jets may be higher and at the same time the expense, dueto the saving of steam, is

materially reduced. 'Even whenthe sand blast is in action-less abrasiveeffect is requiredof it and hence fless steamis used, than in the case'ofthe said patents. `Other distinctions and improvements from themanufacturing and mechanlcal oint of view will be apparent to those slled in this art.l

The stock is drawn through the sand blast4 chest and jet nozzles by aowerful winding drum 22 on which it 1s coiled in its cleansed conditionand from which it may be removed in coil form to be transported directto the drawing or finishing machines.

The detail ofthe winding drum is quite old f in the art and need not bedescribed. It `is driven` by a belt pulley 23 which also drives thesprocket 24 of the chain 13 above referred-to' as driving the Scalerroll. The

speed ratio of the sprockets 12 and 24 is such as to give the sealerrolls a very slightly vmi higher surface velocity than that which isimparted to the stock by the winding drum.

y this speed relation the sealer rollsl assist in drawing thestockthrough the apparatus which precedes it in the present system and at.the same time the said rolls become more effective' in their scaleremoving function.

This is because their tendency is constantly` to produce a slacken'edcondition in the stretch of stockextendin forwardly from them whichhowever mere y results in a certain amount of slippage on the stockbecause the said rolls have no` grip thereon other than by the frictionu n their half circumferences and the prof uction of the slightest slackrelieves such friction to the polnt of slippa e. Such slippage orrubbing friction 1s ound to be highly beneficial in loosening toughscale for subsequent removal by the steam'jets or the sand blast as thecase may be. y

Between the` winding drum and the jets, the stock already cleaned bythemechanism above describedis subjected to a first drawingvoperation bywhich itis reduced to a predetermined and uniform cross-sectional s1ze.'Such apparatus 1s of common deslgn and in the present case isrepresented by two pairs of drawing rolls 25 mounted on axes which areat 90 angles from each other to form between the rolls a pass oftherequisite size. Thus the coil of rod eventually removed from the windingdrum is not only cleaned equivalent to a pickled rod but is alsouniformly sized to the requisite standard gage and all of the saidpreparation is done rapidly and continuously and the apparatus requiredfor suchjpreparation occup1es less space and consumes less power thanthe ordinary procedure and less than necessary with my priorpatentsforproducing equivalent results. It will be of course understood thatthe preparing process is not confined to the use of v all the detailedsteps above described and that various omissions, additions,modications, reversals, andchange's of proportion'may be resorted towithin the scope of the following claims. .l

Claims:

1. The process of preparin rod stock for manufacture, in lieu of pic ingthe same, lwhich consists in first passing the Stock through a sealerwherein it is continuously bent and reversely bent and subjected torubbing friction and then through the action of high velocity iiuidfpressure jets. v

2. The process o preparing rod stock-for manufacture, which consists 1ncontinuously bending the stock in opposite directions aroundsubstantially one-half the circumference of each of two adjacent bendingrolls thereby dislodging 'the bulk of the scale therefrom and thensubjectin the stock continuously tothe action of hig velocity uidpressure jets.

3. The process of preparing rod stock for manufacture, which consists 1nfirst continuously bending and reversely bending the stock to dislodgethe bulk of the scale therefrom and thereafter subjectin it to fluidpressure jets containing an a radant matorial. s

4. The process of preparing rod stock for .manufacture, which consistsin manufacture, which'consists in first vrempving some of the scaletherefrom by` bendin the stock, then subjectmg it to the action o fluidpressure jets successively with and without abradant material therein.

5. The process of preparing rod stock for manufacture, which consists inassing a continuous length thereof vsuccessively and continuouslythrough an annealing heat and a cooling medium and through a, scaleremovin and cleaning apparatus.

6. e process of preparing rod stock for assing a continuous lengththereof successively and continuousl through an annealing heat andcooling me ium,a scale-removing and cleanng apparatus and a set ofsizing drawing ies.

7. The process of preparing rod stock for manufacture, which consists 1nlocally raising a continuous, traveling length of the stock to anannealing temperature, cooling the same as it emerges from the annealingzone and while passing it through a nonoxidizing medium,andfcoincidently cleaning the stock emerging from said medium.

8. Apparatus for preparing rod stock for manufacture comprising meansfor advancing the stock, a scaler comprising` a pair of bending rollsacting thereon and each enaged with opposite sides thereof and means fordrivin the bendin rolls at a different surface ve ocit from t at of the'stock engaged therewit 9. Apparatus for preparing rod stock formanufacture, comprlsng means for advancing the stock, a sealercomprising a pair of bending rolls acting thereon and each enaged withopposite sides thereof, means for drivin the bendin rolls at a differentsurface ve ocity from t at of the stock engaged thereby and fluidpressure jets acting on said stock subsequent to the bending thereof.

10. Apparatus for preparing rod stock for manufacture, comprising meansfor advancing the stock in combination with a scaler including a pair ofbending rolls, aI sand blast chest receiving the stock from said rolls,and pressure jets of non-abrading materlal acting on sald stock andadapted to blow the scale and dirt therefrom into said chest.

11. Apparatus for preparing rod stock for manufacture, comprising thecombination of a sealer including a pair of bendin rolls, a sand blastchest receiving the stor therefrom and pressure jets of non-abradingfluid acting on the stock issuing from the said chest.

12. Apparatus for preparing rod Stock for manufacture, comprising meansfor advancing the stock, a pair of-adjacent rolls about which the stockis bent and reversely bent,- and ianges adjacent said rolls with whichthe stock engages for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

SOLOMON M. CUTTER.

